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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29260266">A Perturbed, Pining Pussycat</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/PawsomePossum/pseuds/PawsomePossum'>PawsomePossum</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Random Fluffshots [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Miraculous Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng Fluff, Adrien pining, Confessions on rooftops, Confident Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, F/M, Gen, Hot Mess Adrien Agreste, Post-Reveal Pre-Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Pre-Relationship, Torture the children, etc. etc. - Freeform, their very existence is fluff, written past midnight in a writing fever</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 12:54:13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,537</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29260266</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/PawsomePossum/pseuds/PawsomePossum</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Adrien is losing his mind.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Random Fluffshots [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2085090</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>124</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Perturbed, Pining Pussycat</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>-- (A/N) -- Post-reveal yearning fluff and angst.</p><p>My eyes welled up while writing this. I feel pathetic.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Chat Noir was crouched on a random Paris rooftop, panting heavily, and about ready to pull his hair out.</p><p>It wasn't fair that she was so close, and yet so far out of his league.</p><p>She was MARINETTE.</p><p>He already knew that she was way beyond him; he had come to terms with this simple fact of life. It wasn't easy, but he knew he had to. Then she had to go and be Ladybug, who he thought he might have had a chance with, and she was cat-apulted even higher up the awesomeness ladder of overarching superiority.</p><p>(He snickered a bit at the pun, but it didn't do much to lift his mood.)</p><p>He had to hold her again. The night of their reveal had been one of the best nights of his life. He knew who his Lady was; he was over the moon that she was Marinette. She had jumped into his arms and squeezed the happy laughter out of him as they both melted in relief. </p><p>He hadn't intentionally touched her since that hug.</p><p>Since that night he had been constantly monitoring his behavior, trying to keep everything he did AFAP. (As Friendly As Possible). He knew she still probably loved Luka, and that wasn't going to change, so he tried to keep his distance. He did try -- don't give him that look, Plagg -- but she made it extremely difficult.</p><p>Every morning at school she would greet him with a huge bear hug, he wallowed in it as much as he could without ending up clinging to her all day, along with a passion fruit macaroon.Then she'd beam at him, big, mesmerizing, bluebell eyes shining as she rambled on about the project she was working on. Throughout the day, she would wink at him from across the classroom, making his heart falter in it's slightly faster rhythm (it would speed up when he thought about her -- which was often -- and it probably wasn't healthy); hug him from behind when she came to sit next to him at lunch (pressing her -- very soft -- cheek to his) as she greeted him with a sweet "Hey, hot stuff!" whispered into his ear, before sitting next to him and kissing him on the cheek, still tingling from the touch of her soft skin on his face. Her constant smiles made him trip over thin air and blush like Nathanael's hair. He caught himself smiling at her -- all lovesick-like -- and kept having to look away from her in all her perfect, dazzling radiance.</p><p>It was destroying him.</p><p>Judging from her actions, she had no idea she was torturing him. He knew she was teasing him with the nicknames; that was just Ladybug and Chat Noir's dynamic. He was terrified that he was going to break and ruin everything.</p><p>He could imagine it now. He would turn his face just far enough to meet her lips when she kissed him at lunch, or she'd let her hair down on patrol and his brain would stop working; he'd lose all self control and she would look at him, beautiful eyes welling up with tears of betrayal.</p><p>
  <em>"How dare you, Chat, you know I love Luka. How could you be so selfish." "But, Princess, I..." "Don't 'Princess' me! You knew how I felt about him. You're just a friend."</em>
</p><p>Those words would hurt now.</p><p>Karma.</p><p>He sat on that roof, inner demons screaming at him, saying: "You aren't good enough for her... she will never choose you... you have to move on..."</p><p>"But I can't." he expressed out loud, hugging himself and rocking back and forth in distress.</p><p>--</p><p>"Hey Kitty! Whatcha doin'?"</p><p>The words jerked him out of his funk and made his heart leap in his chest, speeding up again, beating nearly loud enough to give him away. He took a deep, shaky breath, praying he could calm down, before turning around.</p><p><em>Be suave, Adrien, you're fine.</em> "Hey, Princess, what brings you out this time of night?" <em>Yes. You are smooth and she suspects nothing.</em></p><p>"I was just breathing in the cool night air and thought I'd try to find you; let my hair down and spend time with my favorite Kitty." She smiled at him, walked over to sit next to him, and leaned her head on his shoulder.</p><p>She had no idea what she did to him. <em>Please don't take your hair down. I can't handle it if you do.</em></p><p>She took her ribbons out of her hair and tied them in bows around his cat ears.</p><p>"Wow. How do you get even more adorable? It's very unfair ya'know." </p><p>He wasn't listening.</p><p>She was kneeling in front of him, hand scratching behind his ears, long hair floating freely, and a look in her eyes that finally snapped something in him.</p><p>He pulled her forward and clutched her to his chest to hide his face as the tears finally escaped his eyes. He couldn't believe that he'd lost her. He'd never had either side of her. He never had a chance and It was tearing him apart thinking he'd have to watch her walk into someone else's arms.</p><p>He knew he was her best friend and he would be there for her during all her major life events. He'd be cheering her on all through graduation, university, and becoming the greatest designer of all time. But he would have to attend her wedding. Hand her off to someone else and probably sit in the front row for support.</p><p>Babysit her children. Who belonged to another man.</p><p>He sat there, in her arms, shaking as tears rolled down his face and sobs escaped him for a chance he never had.</p><p>"Kitty, what's wrong?" she pulled away and looked at his face in alarm, panicking and wiping his tears away. "Was it your father? I swear I'm going to kill that man! What did he do? Let me at him. I'll fight him right now."</p><p>Adrien shook his head, slightly amused at her fiery temper, loving her even more for her need to fix everything.</p><p>"No," he choked out a response, still shaking. "I just love you so much."</p><p>She looked a bit surprised at his confession, but he couldn't hold it in anymore.</p><p>"I just love you so much. When we revealed, I was so happy that you were Marinette. Then I realized the other boy was Luka and I hoped it was me but I never had a chance, then we've been so close the past few weeks and it's been torture knowing you don't feel the same way then you smile at me and hug me and bring me food and stand up for me and... care so much."</p><p>"It hurts so badly knowing how lucky Luka is and how badly I messed up by letting you get away."</p><p>"You're so beautiful, and thoughtful, and caring, and adorable, and perfect, and you have no idea what seeing your hair down like that does with my emotions, and sweet, and righteous, and brave, and sassy, and protective, and beautiful, and perfect, and... mmmph," his hyperventilating halted suddenly.</p><p>She was kissing him.</p><p>It wasn't long enough. He didn't have time to kiss her back, show her how much he loved her, before she pulled away.</p><p>"It was the only way to get you to stop." She was panting heavily like she was winding down from her indignant fury and shock at his rambling.</p><p>"What..."</p><p>"Shhh. Listen to me." She put her finger to his lips to keep him from asking his barrage of questions.</p><p>"First, it was never Luka, Adrien. Yes, he did have feelings for me, but I had to let him down. Second, who's umbrella have I kept for so long? Who did I stutter and blush around for the longest time? Who did I give my lucky charm to? Who's handmade-with-love lucky charm is around my wrist right now? Who have I been hugging and kissing and bringing gifts to because... oh my gosh I just assumed we were dating after that reveal hug, didn't I?"</p><p>"Well, I feel stupid now. I was wondering why you were holding back so much."</p><p>Adrien's foggy brain was trying to catch up with her questions. When he reached the final one, he looked up at her with very hopeful green eyes. Mari was blushing and appeared to be rambling on to no one. Adorable, and too good to be true.</p><p>"It was me?"</p><p>"Huh?"</p><p>"If it was me, you should say it very clearly right now so I don't break down again in hopelessness and despair in fear of never getting to love you."</p><p>She scooted forward on her knees and brought her hands up to his face. "It's you, mon Chaton."</p><p>His face broke into a teary grin as his heart filled and overflowed with unconstrained happiness and love. He pulled her into another kiss, teeth clacking together because they were smiling so hard.</p><p>"Third," Ladybug whispered, their foreheads touching, and her practically in his lap on a random Paris rooftop, "I love you, stupid cat."</p><p>"Let's go watch anime at my house, shall we?"</p><p>She knew what he liked.</p><p>"Yes ma'am."</p><p>--</p><p>The pussycat would pine no more.</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I finally managed to write something. Ain't ya proud of me?</p><p>Thoughts?</p><p>I like it.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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